


from things divine

by sibley (ferns)



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Autistic Cisco Ramon, Dante Ramon Lives, Established Relationship, Jewish Character, Kissing, Meet the Family, Self-Esteem Issues, Trans Cindy Reynolds, Trans Cisco Ramon, Trans Female Character, Trans Male Character, dante wins the 'most dramatic bitch alive' award, in passing, mentions of transphobia, sorta soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2019-01-21 16:07:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12461226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ferns/pseuds/sibley
Summary: It's time for Cindy to meet the family. Cisco's anxious.





	from things divine

**Author's Note:**

> Cindy and Cisco are both trans (Cindy's a trans woman and Cisco's a trans man) and Cisco is autistic. No warnings other than 'Cindy and Cisco both have garbage self esteem and can't believe the other one is in love with them because they think the other one is too good for them' plus like... Implied sexy times, I guess.

“Good morning, beautiful,” Cisco said softly, reaching out to brush his thumb over the curve of Cindy’s jaw. Last night had been _great._ Dinner and a movie and then really great sex that ended in cuddling. Which meant that it had been Cisco’s ideal night. Which would hopefully continue into the morning, since Cindy was not only still there but also awake and slowly blinking at him. “How did you sleep?”

“Good.” Cindy sat up on her elbows with a small sigh. She lowered her gaze for a moment and took a deep breath. “Last night was… Good. I liked it. We should do stuff like that more often.”

Cisco sat up too and kissed her cheek. “You look great,” he murmured. “I mean-you always do, you look good all the time no matter what, but… You look really good right now.”

Cindy looked at him and he didn’t keep eye contact as he blushed hard. She tried to imagine what she must look like to him. Sitting up on his bed with her hair messy and with no shirt on, lower body covered with Cisco’s thick comforter. How she must’ve looked last night while on top of him, bending over to kiss him while he whispered her name.

For a moment a wave of nausea washed over her. The feeling of knowing that people had seen her naked-even if it _was_ Cisco, someone who she _trusted_ with her _life_ who was like she was, the new half of her whole-was something that had never stopped effecting her. Even after sex. She took in Cisco’s flushed face and genuine smile and awkwardly fidgeting hands.

_He’d meant it,_ she realized. She hadn’t fully understood it before just then. _Every time he says something nice about me, it’s because he means it._ “I do?”

“You look _incredible._ I think you might be the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” Cisco answered honestly. “I could look at you all day.”

Cindy couldn’t stop herself from smiling. “Flatterer.”

Cisco tapped his chin in mock thought. “Is it flattery if it’s true?”

She pounced on him, rolling him underneath her just like she had the night before. “I think it is, yes.” She peppered his face with kisses to hide the genuine warm feelings curling inside of her at the strange realization that when he said things about how she was beautiful and sexy and the best woman in the world, he had meant it. Had meant every single word. “Does this mean that I get to flatter you back?”

“Well, I wouldn’t really be opposed to it,” Cisco joked, kissing her nose.

“Well then, you’re the most handsome man in the world,” Cindy began as she sat up a little. She inspected her boyfriend, the curve of his collarbone, the twin faded scars on his chest, how warm his eyes were… He’d picked her. The most handsome and stunning man she had ever laid eyes on had picked _her._ The Collector from another world who had needed to fight tooth and nail to even be _allowed_ to transition because of her stepmother, the metahuman who got in too many fights for her own good. “You’re _perfect._ I could be with you for the rest of my life with no regrets.”

She fell silent and they both looked at each other in silence.

“You mean that?” Cisco whispered.

Cindy swallowed thickly. She had, but-what if Cisco didn’t feel the same way?  “...I mean that.”

“Oh, man. Oh. Oh. You-” Cisco grinned. “I love you so much. You know that, right? You know I love you more than I love anybody else in the world?”

“I know,” Cindy promised. “And I love you too.”

For a moment, it seemed like their morning was about to take the same direction that the night before had, but they were interrupted by Cisco’s phone ringing.

He groaned and wriggled out from underneath his girlfriend. “Way to ruin the moment, Barry.” He picked up his phone and frowned. “Wait, this isn’t Barry.”

Cindy got off the bed and started to get dressed, finding her discarded bra from the day before and stealing one of Cisco’s shirts out of his closet. It was just a little bit too big on her, but it was made of a soft fabric and smelled like Cisco’s laundry detergent and there was a cute little graphic of a dragon holding some dice on the front.

“Why are you calling me at nine thirty in the morning, Dante?” Cisco groaned. “You could’ve just woken me up! What if I was in the middle of the best dream of my life and you had just woken me up by calling me? I would have to disown you…No, I don’t know if it’s possible to disown your brother, but I’m still going to _try._ Or at least I would try if you had actually woken me up because it turns out you didn’t. What’s up?”

Cindy pulled some jeans on and looked at Cisco curiously. He’d told her about his still living brother a few times to her, and told her what had happened to his oldest one, but she’d never actually _met_ Dante Ramon. Cisco had told her that while he loved his family and knew that they loved him, he didn’t want her to meet them for awhile. He didn’t see them very often, and when he did it was usually kind of awkward. At least it was when he saw his parents-Cisco saw Dante much more often than he saw the two of them.

“Dante, _no!_ Don’t you dare-” Cisco pulled his phone away from his ear and glared at it. “He hung up on me. Of course he did.”

“Why did he call you?” Cindy asked, pulling on her socks.

“Apparently, he told our parents about you,” Cisco groaned as he cradled his head in his hands. “Which means they _really_ want to meet you. Like, tonight. They want us to come over for dinner.”

Cindy raised her eyebrows. “Tonight?”

“Yeah. I’m gonna call Dante back and tell him to tell them that we both have separate work stuff tonight, or something. Maybe take some people down as Vibe so he knows I wasn’t lying.” He looked at Cindy and his eyes went wide. “You look _really_ great in my clothes, by the way. I don’t know if I’ve ever told you that.”

“Maybe once or twice.” She crossed her arms. “But why don’t you want me to meet them?” She felt a little pang of hurt settle in her chest. “Is it because of how badly meeting my Dad went?”

“Only partially!” Cisco threw his hands up. “Only partially, okay. And I think it worked out alright in the end even if I am pretty much permanently terrified of him now. I just… You meeting Dante, that’s something I can handle. He’s started to insert himself into my life a lot more these days so it was bound to happen completely on accident anyway at some point. I'm sure of it. But my parents… I don’t know. I don’t even think it’ll go badly, it’s just… Nerve wracking, you know? They’re my parents and I love them but they can be a _lot_ sometimes.”

“Your introduction to my father was possibly the worst one you could’ve possibly gotten,” Cindy pointed out dryly. “If you don’t want me to meet your parents yet, that’s fine, but don’t you think it’d be better to get it over with now?”

Cisco ran a hand through his messy hair. “I guess. I’m just worried. What if they don’t like you? I mean, I don’t really see _how_ they couldn’t like you since you’re, like, the best woman in the world”-Cindy blushed-“but what if they don’t? What if they say something that’s rude on Earth-19 but perfectly acceptable here and I have to explain to them that you’re from another universe? What if _you_ don’t like _them_ for some reason?”

“If we could handle my dad _literally_ trying to hunt you down for pretty much no reason the first time you met him,” Cindy said, moving over so she could take Cisco’s hand in hers, “we can handle meeting your completely average, non-superpowered parents. Right?”

Really, saying it was for her benefit as much as it was for Cisco’s. Logically, she knew that there was no way it could’ve possibly gone worse than the meeting between Cisco and Quell. But she also knew that she was deeply, hopelessly in love with Cisco, and if the meeting between her and his parents didn’t go perfectly then he was going to be upset. And the last thing Cindy wanted was for Cisco to be upset. So if indefinitely postponing the dinner they were supposed to go to tonight was what would make Cisco happy, she’d do it.

“You’re right,” he admitted. He kissed her cheek. “I just really want them to like you. But they don’t know I’m Vibe even though Dante does, and I don’t know how they can understand all of the perfect parts of you without knowing that I’m a superhero and you’re a government-sanctioned bounty hunter from another dimension.”

“We can just say I work for the government,” Cindy suggested. “I don’t really know anything about the laws here on your Earth, though. But it’s easier than saying I’m a Collector.”

Cisco groaned. “So… We’re doing this? Because I _am_ willing, but… I don’t know. You’re the most serious relationship I’ve had in awhile and I just want to make sure I’m doing this right.”

“You’re probably the first serious relationship I’ve _ever_ had,” Cindy admitted. “There’s not a lot of time for it when you’re a Collector. That’s why partners on the force tend to date each other. It’s just… The only person available. It’s how my friend Ted met his husband. But they’re not usually super serious like that, even if they’re encouraged because you’re more likely to watch your partner’s back if they’re in a romantic relationship with you. Apparently. I’ve never really found that to be true.”

Cisco gave her a squeeze. “So we’re both kind of in the deep end right now. I guess that kind of makes it better?” He swallowed. “Are we going tonight or not? It’s up to you.”

Cindy hesitated. Making snap decisions in the field was one thing. Making well thought out decisions about the future of her romantic relationship with somebody was another. “I think we should do it.”

“Then we’ll do it,” Cisco said simply. “Which means I have to figure out if they’re expecting me to wear something other than whatever I pull out of my closet first.”

“At least we know your hair will look good.” Cindy smiled a little. Small things about Cisco, like how he didn’t really care what he was wearing unless he _really_ wanted to look fancy but took meticulous care of his hair, made her love him even more.

Cisco grinned. “Yeah, at least we know that.” He gave her another kiss. “Alright, I should probably get ready for work…”

* * *

“How do I look?” Cisco asked, quirking an eyebrow and gesturing to himself. “Because I think I look pretty damn good.”

“You do look damn good,” Cindy agreed. He was wearing a clean pair of black pants and a plain navy blue shirt with what looked like a faded star chart on it. “You always look damn good.”

“Now who’s the flatterer?” Cisco joked. He looked Cindy up and down. “You look… Amazing.”

She wasn’t dressed up or anything. The jeans she had on were the same ones that she had been wearing all day. Cisco’s borrowed shirt had been swapped out for a light green one that had rolled up a little bit at the bottom so Cisco could see just a bit of skin. When she noticed him looking at it, she pulled it back down a little more only for it to come up again when she wasn’t paying attention.

“I do?” Cindy shrugged. “I just figured since you weren’t dressing up too nice…”

“No, this is fine. Casual but it doesn’t have any stains on it is perfect for meeting my family, trust me,” Cisco promised. “You just-wow. I love you. So much.”

“I love you so much too.” Cindy fiddled with her hair. “I’m gonna put on some makeup. Just a little bit.”

“I’m going to text Dante and tell him not to be insufferable tonight.” Cisco sat down on his bed. Did it count as their bed yet? Did it only start being their bed when the other person officially moved in? Or did it start when someone spent almost all of their nights there without actually, truly living there?

Cisco was pretty sure most of the standard couple milestones didn’t really count for them. Most couples weren’t made up of two of the most powerful beings in the multiverse, one of which was a superhero while the other was technically a bounty hunter who had seen a million different universes and dimensions.

He closed his eyes and smiled to himself a little. A million universes and Earths and dimensions and Cindy had _still_ picked him. She’d _still_ decided to be with him. It had done wonders for his self esteem, really. To know that someone like her, someone beautiful and brave and strong and resilient and lovely and amazing and _perfect,_ had chosen to be with _him._ The tech support guy who still hadn’t built up enough confidence to publically tell people his superhero name. The autistic trans nerdy freak with one dead brother and one crazy one.

The most amazing, incredible woman in the whole multiverse had picked _him._

“You almost ready to go?” He called.

Cindy stepped out of his bathroom, smiling nervously. “Yeah. Just finished.”

Cisco offered her his arm. “C’mon. We’ll take my car.”

There wasn’t anything else they _could_ take, really, considering that Cindy didn’t have a car on Earth-1. According to her, she didn’t even own one on her home Earth, either, and just walked or breached wherever she wanted to go.

“Hell no,” Cindy said flatly. “That thing is _tiny.”_ Cisco pouted. She was right, it _was_ a bit cramped, but… He was being environmentally conscious! He was helping! “We’ll breach to a few blocks away and then walk there. I’m not getting in your tiny car.”

She loved Cisco more than her own life, she really did, but you couldn’t pay her anything to get into that car again.

Cisco sighed and kissed her cheek so he wouldn’t have to taste her lipstick. “Fine. And I know you’re working up to getting me to buy a new car, so I’m telling you right now-it’s not going to work. I love my car. I’ve been thinking about names for her recently.”

Cindy was still laughing as Cisco opened a portal and pulled them both through it, letting Cisco hug her against his chest. Strange. Before, if someone had tried that, tried to be close to her without her knowing that they were about to… She would’ve reacted. But with Cisco, touching was normal.

Maybe enjoying Cisco’s touch was a side effect of being in love with him. Just like wanting to say the word “shmoopy” was. Luckily, getting gently and casually touched often didn’t make her want to gag like that word did.

They walked together, huddled a little bit against the chilly air. Cisco was pointing out houses as they passed them, telling her about the former neighbors that had been or still were living inside of them. Bullies and friendly acquaintances and one guy who apparently got arrested for-something that Cisco wouldn’t tell her, but he _did_ tell her that Dante going to the police was the reason that he ended up going to prison in the end.

He pointed to one up ahead with all of its lights on. “That’s my parents’ house. You’re sure you’re ready?”

“I’ve fought a thousand multidimensional monsters and breachers who got in over their heads and fugitives,” Cindy said dryly. “I can handle meeting your family. Or at least I think I can.”

Cisco stepped up onto the porch and knocked. “Also, just warning you-if they like you, you’re automatically invited over for all future holidays. I hope you like matzo ball soup.”

Cindy opened her mouth, but before she could tell him that while she loved matzo ball soup she doubted anybody’s recipe could compare to her dad’s, the door opened.

Cisco’s parents looked like opposites.

His mother was taller and thinner with long curly hair while his father was a good foot shorter than his wife and much more round.

And both of them were on her in seconds.

Cisco laughed as Cindy tried to answer all of their questions and blushed at their compliments, shifting awkwardly from foot to foot. Someone, Cindy guessed that it was Dante, snaked their hand through the two Ramons and grabbed onto Cindy’s wrist, pulling her in. “Come inside, you’re making the house all cold.”

“Let her breathe,” Cisco said, giving Cindy’s hand a squeeze. “Cindy, this is my mom and my dad and that’s Dante.”

Dante, who was standing at the back and had let go of her wrist, waved. “Hey. Nice to meet you. Cisco’s told a _lot_ about you.”

Cindy hugged herself. “I hope it was good things.”

“Oh, definitely,” Dante promised. “He might as well have been talking about an angel from the way he described you.” Cisco choked. “What? I’m telling the truth! You should’ve heard him go on and on about you. I called him for tips on getting someone’s number and he immediately launched into a spiel about how you were perfect.”

“Dante,” Cisco hissed, face bright red, _“shut up!”_

Blushing, Cindy looked down at the floor. This felt… Weird. She wasn’t sure if it was the bad kind of weird or not, or at least she couldn’t _yet,_ but it was _definitely_ weird. She swallowed. The house smelled good, comforting, and safe, and when she had first taken it in and automatically inspected it for ways to escape or defend it, it was safe and easily defended. That probably hadn’t been taken into consideration when the house had been built, but checking was instinct at this point. Being surrounded by people who wanted to know about her wasn’t exactly anything new, but usually it was less personal and more like she was a dissected specimen on a table.

Genuine compliments on things other than her Collecting prowess were equally new. Ones that weren’t just her stepmother approvingly telling her that she _finally_ looked like a princess even if, of course, she could never be the Queen because that wasn’t her _place._ According to her, Cindy wasn’t allowed to be a girl and still like the things that she liked. If she ‘wanted’ to be a girl then she had to _act_ like one, never mind that that didn’t make _any_ sense.

Hearing from Dante that Cisco had been _bragging_ about her without prompting shouldn’t have made fireworks go off inside of her, but it did.

“Well, I think your girlfriend deserves to know that I literally cannot get you to stop talking about her for two seconds.” Dante crossed his arms. “I have to suffer through all of your bragging, which means that she gets to hear about it.”

Cindy watched them bicker, numbly answering any questions that got thrown her way as she was semi-forced to migrate to the dining room. She kept looking around, trying to categorize things into weapons and not weapons automatically before switching to trying to find the evidence that Cisco had once lived in this house.

Of which there was a _lot._

Without even turning her head, Cindy could see three different pictures with Cisco in them, two of him on his own and one with him and an older boy. Quietly, Cindy wondered if it was Armando. If _that_ was the brother she’d been told so little about other than that Cisco had loved him and looked up to him like he’d hung the stars.

Looking at the picture, something tugged a little at Cindy’s gut. Like there were puzzle pieces she was supposed to be connecting but hadn’t done so yet. She shook the feeling out of her head. There wasn’t time to follow up on that. Right now was about Cisco and his family.

About halfway through dinner, which Cindy promised Mrs. Ramon every few minutes was delicious, Dante banged his glass down and pointed at Cisco. “How could you do this to me?”

“Huh?” Cisco blinked. He genuinely had no idea what his brother was talking about.

Dante switched to pointing at Cindy. “You bring her back here and just, like, expect me to one day be able to live up to that? You’re just gonna bring around the perfect woman and then leave me to my own ends? Even though you know full well I’ll never be able to have a significant other who compares to this!”

Cindy covered her hand with her mouth to hide her laughter as Cisco’s dad pulled Dante’s arm down so he wasn’t pointing anymore. Cisco rolled his eyes while smiling. “Don’t be so dramatic.”

“I’ll be as dramatic as I want!” Dante said indignantly, struggling not to start laughing. “I was hoping that all of your bragging would be an exaggeration, but _no!”_ He stabbed his food with his fork. “It was all true! And here I am, struggling to even get so much as a guy’s number-”

At that point, Dante broke, which made Cisco start laughing too. Their parents didn’t laugh, which Cindy guessed was because they were used to this kind of behavior, but… It alleviated some of the tension to laugh. And Cindy was more than a little flattered. That seemed to be a reoccuring theme with Cisco. Hopefully he wouldn’t find out about the fact that after the first time she’d met him she’d described him to Mari while being as subtle as possible and then discreetly gushed about him for the next week while Mari pestered her about who it was.

Somehow, watching Cisco joke around with his big brother while answering or barely deflecting any questions that came her way from Cisco’s parents, she couldn’t keep the smile off her face.

At home, she and her dad never had dinners together anymore unless it was a quick bite to eat on their way back from catching some criminal. God forbid she ever voluntarily spend a meal with her stepmother. So this was new. Not just the eating with others part, since she was slowly getting used to doing that with Cisco, but the ‘meeting the family’ thing. Even when she’d been dating her partner on the Collecting force it hadn’t been serious, not really. Not in the end.

This, with Cisco, was not only more serious, but it was a thousand times better than she could have anticipated.

She could see why Cisco had been worried, though. It was a lot of pressure. Even though they’d been dating for some time, that didn’t mean that they had everything under control. They found out new stuff about each other every day. Meeting someone’s parents could happen anywhere from the night after the first date to six months into it, and even then it was nerve-wracking.

But judging by the approving smiles she got when she immediately started listing off all the things she loved about Cisco once prompted (much to Cisco’s simultaneous delight and deep embarrassment), while trying to steer clear of how _incredible_ he was at being a superhero, she’d made, at the very least, a decent first impression.

It didn’t take any prodding at all to get Cisco to show her the baby photos he had. In fact, he was eager to, and for a heartbeat Cindy wished she could be that comfortable in her own skin before realizing that with Cisco, she was. She’d never felt better than she did when she was with Cisco. Never felt stronger or more beautiful than when Cisco told her that she was those things. Cindy’s baby pictures had long since been destroyed by her with help from Mari and her father, but… Maybe she would let him vibe some choice childhood moments. She trusted him with that.

“This is when I won my second grade science fair,” Cisco said smugly, pointing to a picture of him standing next to… Some sort of contraption. Cindy really couldn’t tell what it was supposed to be, so she focused on little Cisco standing at the front with a huge grin on his face, long dark curls framing his face and blending into the black dress he was wearing. “My hair was _way_ curlier when I was younger. God, wait a second-” He flipped a few pages and pointed to a picture of Dante. “Look at this! Look at those curls!”

Dante tried to cover the picture with his hand. “There’ll be time for you to embarrass me later, Paco. Go back to embarrassing yourself.”

Cisco elbowed him as Mr. Ramon took the album from his hands and showed Cindy a picture of a nine-year-old Cisco with huge sunglasses on sitting on their couch with a large bucket of candy next to him. His hair had been cut short and he was unmistakably dressed as Han Solo.

“You have no idea how excited he was to go trick-or-treating that year,” he told her. “But he said that when we took the picture he needed to be wearing sunglasses because Han Solo is cool and cool people wear sunglasses.”

Cindy almost told him about how excited Cisco had been to show her Earth-1’s Star Wars, but decided not to. Beside her, Cisco buried his face in his hands. “Honestly?” He said into his fingers. “I stand by it. I looked cool.”

“Very cool, baby,” Cindy promised, kissing his cheek. “Sunglasses make you look super cool.”

“Exactly! See, I was trying to fit them into my, um, work outfit in some way, but it just wasn’t happening.” He pouted.

Cindy couldn’t help but laugh against his shoulder as she pictured him in his Vibe outfit but with sunglasses instead of goggles.

She laughed a lot more with Cisco.

* * *

“I think that went well, despite Dante giving us absolutely no warning,” Cisco murmured, pressing a kiss to Cindy’s jaw.

She snuggled closer to him. “I think it went pretty well, too. Your family is nice. I’d like to see them again.”

“Yeah. Overwhelming, but nice,” Cisco agreed. “I don’t know what I was worried about.” Looking back on it, his anxiety seemed silly. “I guess I just didn’t know what to expect.”

“It’s fine to be nervous about taking a big step,” Cindy assured him. “I didn’t have a lot of say in when you met my Dad, and I think it’ll be better for everyone if you _never_ meet my stepmother.” She swallowed. “I’ll take you to my Mom’s grave sometime, though. If I can sneak you onto Earth-19.”

“I’ll take you to see Armando’s soon, too,” Cisco promised. He wondered what Armando would’ve thought of Cindy. He couldn’t imagine Armando being anything _except_ supportive, not really. Anything but welcoming to Cindy. Though he would probably call her Cynthia instead for at least a month before working his way to calling her Cindy. Armando was like that sometimes. Had been like that sometimes.

Cisco stopped himself before he could start crying.

“I love you,” he said softly, closing his eyes. “A lot. More than I can say.”

“I love you even more,” Cindy yawned, tucking her head underneath Cisco’s chin. “Now go to sleep. Who knows what kind of trouble Barry’s going to get into tomorrow.”

Cisco awkwardly kissed the top of her head. Sleeping was easier with Cindy there. Like her vibrations soothed his vibrations and made it easier for him to exist. Living was better with her.

He didn’t believe in soulmates, not really, but if they existed, then he was positive Cindy was his.

**Author's Note:**

> The Ramon family is supportive and loving because unlike the CW, I read comics.
> 
> As always, I'm @danteramon on tumblr.


End file.
